A golden girl learns the secrets of alchemy

Thomas Wijck (1616-1677) Alchemist

In my high school yearbook, The Keough Current, I was voted most likely to become an alchemist.  Alchemy is a medieval practice that was based on the supposed magical transformation of matter, particularly turning lead into gold, but if you have ever read the book The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho, you know that alchemy can also be a metaphor for transformation.  The protagonist in Coelho's story is Santiago, a shepherd who finds self-empowerment as he follows a seemingly impossible dream.  The yearbook editor’s prediction was right - I am now a golden girl in the image of Dorothy, Rose, Blanche and Sophia.  Yes, I will admit I am old - so old in fact that when a friend posted on Facebook to comment with a dog’s name that did not have the letter “a” in it, I replied with Rin-Tin-Tin.  But being a Baby Boomer is not the only thing that makes me a golden girl because I tend to disassociate my true age from my perceived one. I have learned that to be truly golden, it is necessary to understand that positive change comes from truly knowing yourself.  After much hesitation and soul-searching, I finally unlocked the profound secrets of alchemy as a fifty-something and decided to pursue my dream of earning a college degree.

So in 2009, more than thirty-five years after graduating from high school, I attended a First Thursday information session and enrolled in NDMU’s CAUS program (College of Adult Undergraduate Studies).   When my grown children asked me why I was returning to school at my age, I replied “So you can put BA on my tombstone”  and I graduated in 2012 with a bachelor’s  degree in Liberal Studies.  When I decided to continue my education with a Master’s degree in Contemporary Communications, my younger son quipped, “You really don’t need to get an MA because we were always going to put ‘Ma’ on your tombstone.”   I do think he is proud of my achievements though – he refers to me as “Smarty-pants”.  I guess it takes one to know one, right?

The truth is that I returned to school for personal fulfillment rather than for career advancement.  I had always dreamed of earning my college degree but circumstances forced me to defer that dream when I was younger.  I am the oldest of four siblings and can remember how my parents would introduce us. They would say “This is our daughter Karen.  She’s a nurse.  This is our son Ed.  He’s a teacher.  This is our son Scott.  He is a computer programmer.  And this is Denise, our oldest.”  No noteworthy tag line for me.  I don’t think they did this to intentionally make me feel bad – in fact, I don’t even know if they were aware that they did it at all.  A degree became a symbol of validation and credibility to me but sadly my parents did not live long enough to see me earn one. 

When I was a young woman, I was always looking forward to something new and exciting and I realized that I missed that feeling of anticipation.  As I have discovered, continuing to pursue my dreams is part of the secret to staying young.  Lisa is a blogger who commented on Huffington Post’s Generation Fabulous, a website that provides a forum for post-fifty women. She wrote:

"The feeling of youth is that vibration, a heady mixture of fear, thrill and adventure that ran through our bodies and minds when we were young. We experience it when we don’t know what will come next in some element of our lives.”  - Lisa on Grown and Flown

 I don’t know what new experiences to expect after I graduate in May but I’m enthusiastically looking forward to whatever comes along.   I have successfully fulfilled my dream and discovered wisdom as well as knowledge in the process.  In the tradition of a true alchemist, I have turned base metal into gold.